Managing the Hospitality Experience Emotional Labour - Research Proposal Example

Managing the hospitality experience – Emotional Labour Student’s Name: Course Code: Tutor’s Name: Date of Submission Executive summary This report tries to examine the concept of emotional labor and its influence on employees in the hospitality industry. Workers in the hospitality sector use emotional labor in displaying feelings and emotions that customer would like to see in the process of delivering their services. An employee can be experiencing different emotions, but in the working environment they usually change and display organizational emotions through emotional labor. I visited Payneham Chinese Restaurant, where emotional labor was evident with the employees through changing their facial expressions and their inner feelings to match the customer’s desired response and make them feel comfortable and welcomed. This change of feelings by the workers was found to play a considerable role in attracting customers as they felt welcome and satisfied when in the restaurant. Positive experience was delivered well by the use of emotional behavior, but it was evident that the workers needed to put themselves in the customer’s shoes for them to maintain their performance in satisfying the customers. The report has shown how Chinese cuisine in Payneham restaurant made their customers satisfied due to employment of emotional labor by the employees. Other scholars contributions in emotional labor have been analyzed by the report’s literature review and the necessity of emotional labor in the hospitality industry has been shown clearly with the reference to Payneham restaurant. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Literature review 4 Discussion 5 Initial impression 5 Payneham Chinese Restaurant 6 Consequences of emotional labor 6 Importance of emotional labor 7 Recommendations 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Appendices 10 Introduction The aim of this report is to analyze, and to discuss as well as give recommendations, on the employment of emotional labor by workers at Payneham Chinese Restaurant where I visited to have a Chinese yum cha. The report will also consider how hospitality is provided in the restaurant and its impacts to customers. It will also analyze the initial impressions I had before I visited and the actual experience I received after the visit . In addition the report will consider the different concepts of emotional labor such as deep acting and surface acting and and their relationship in influencing the customer experience as well satisfaction in the hospitality industry such as Payneham Chinese Restaurant. The nature of hospitality offered in the restaurant as they offer Chinese cuisine will be analyzed. Finally, recommendations will be presented as to how the restaurant can further enhance and improve the role of emotional labor in service deliverly and satisfy their customers more. Literature review Choi and Kim (2015, p. 285) argues that the concept of emotional labor was introduced for the first time by Arlie Hochschild who was an American sociologist. Since then many scholars and researchers have tried to refine the concept. Emotional labor is a method of regulating emotions and feelings in the workplace so as to satisfy customers (Choi and Kim 2015, p. 285). It is the management emotions with the aim of creating a friendly and nice attitude towards customers and making them feel satisfied. In the process of delivering their services, workers in the hospitality industry need to show positive feeling about their customers and at the same time, try to suppress their negative emotions or feelings (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.117). In the process of doing this, workers can either use deep acting as well as surface acting. In surface acting, the worker shows some feelings that are not identical with the ones he has (Zapf 2002, p. 242). Here the worker tries to hide his real emotions and act according to the prescriptions by the organization or the business for the sake satisfying customers (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.117). Surface acting is usually accompanied by change of the outward appearance, including the tone of the voice, facial expressions as well as gestures (Choi and Kim 2015, p. 286). Deep acting on the other hand, involves expressing behavior and at the same time regulates the inner emotions to fit the environment (Lee, and Ok 2014: 179). Workers here seem to be highly motivated in showing the behavior that the customer expects from them (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.117). Deep acting occurs in situations where the feelings and emotions of the worker do not rhyme with the specific situation or environment. This way they are forced to manipulate their inner feelings other than the outer appearance (Choi and Kim 2015, p. 286). As workers apply emotional labor in the hospitality industry, there is usually disharmony which occurs due to feelings deviance (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.118). The difference in the actual emotions and the displayed emotions, known as emotional faking results to emotional disharmony and can eventually cause emotional dissonance (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.120). Continued emotional dissonance can have negative impacts on the employee since it is accompanied by constant stress, psychological sickness as well as a high probability of job change (Dahling, and Perez, 2010, p. 572). In the context of a restaurant, various workers such as waiters, waitress and receptionists are required to employ emotional labor in their daily activities for them to attract customers as well as retain them (Zapf 2002, p. 242). Workers who suppress their feelings using surface acting as well as deep acting in the hospitality industry such as restaurants need proper training to be able to deal with customers without interfering with their psychological wellbeing (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p.118). Employers need to put down some strategies to make sure that their workers are not affected negatively by emotional labor and customers are satisfied. Discussion Initial impression I had very positive impressions of the restaurant prior to my visit due to what I had heard from friends who were frequent visitors of the restaurant. Online reviews that I came across described the staff as polite with good services being offered and the restaurant was very spacious. I had heard that the restaurant offers the best Chinese Yum Cha which tasted good and fresh. I sometimes hesitated visiting the restaurant after reading some reviewers who were describing the experience in the restaurant as the worst. Some were talking of food not being fresh but after my friends confirmed to me that they had good time there I decided to visit the restaurant. Payneham Chinese Restaurant Payneham Chinese Restaurant is located in Payneham road, Royston Park South Australia. I went there to get the Chinese yum cha, the restaurant is big with a lot of space, not many people dining there at lunch time (because yum cha is normally for Breakfast), there were two waitresses standing at the counter when I walked in, and they said hello and asked politely, “How many are you?”, they were polite. After telling them we were two, they ushered us to an empty table in the restaurant and gave us two menus. They left us studying the menus and then they started to playing mobile phones in the counter and chatting with each other. I had to walk to the counter to tell them that we were ready to order the food. The food was brought out quickly, because the yum cha food is all pre-made food, Chinese people always drink tea while having yum cha, when we were in need of refilling our tea, I didn’t walk to the counter but I raised my hand and told them because they didn’t really give eye contact to customers. The restaurant environment was fine, the waitresses were polite but they did not concentrate on their job, and the food was food. As we were enjoying our yum cha I realized that the two waitresses were replaced by two other gentlemen. The two new attendants were very considerate to all the customers who entered the restaurant. They showed signs of deep acting as well as surface acting while dealing with the customers. One of the waiters encountered an unhappy customer who had received more yum cha than he had ordered. He used surface acting to maintain the situation even if the customer was ranting and shouting to him. He apologized in a friendly manner and advised the customer to pay for what he had ordered. This was a clear indication that the waiter was using emotional labour to make the customer feel satisfied. Consequences of emotional labor Emotional labor has different consequences to the customer as well as the worker. Evidence from Payneham Chinese Restaurant showed that workers suffer from displaying emotions that they are not experiencing at the moment and this can lead to a psychological problem (Choi and Kim 2015, p. 287). I made my conclusion that the two waitresses were tired for serving many customers and employing emotional labor to a variety of customers and maybe this made them to react against the customer’s expectations. Emotional dissonance can make individuals not to face other people directly since their feelings are somehow mixed up. Others will always feel uneasy due to continued deep acting away from their actual feelings and emotions (Choi and Kim 2015, p. 287). Customers on the other hand may feel satisfied with the attention they are given by these service workers without their understanding that the workers are doing that to satisfy them. Due to these factors or the negative impacts of emotional labor to employees, proper training needs to be provided to these service workers for them to deal with emotional dissonance. Employers are required to keep on encouraging as well motivating their service workers to make them continue giving the best services as they employing emotional labor. Importance of emotional labor The hospitality industry has been very competitive nowadays. The establishment of many hotels and restaurants has increased the level of competition among the firms in this industry. This makes it necessary for restaurants to employ emotional labor for them to satisfy their customers and therefore increase their competitive advantage (Dahling, and Perez 2010: 575). Review from customers can attract customers or make them never to return to the restaurant. A restaurant whose employees employ emotional labor are more likely to attract more customers as the customers will special and welcomed in the restaurant making emotional labor important to these restaurants. Recommendations For Payneham Chinese Restaurant to use emotional labour successfully and satisfy their customers they need to put down some strategies as well improve some such as the following: Employ mature individuals. As people continue to grow older, they tend to accept the deep acting method of emotional labor as a strategic orientation that is near the naturally expressed expressions (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p. 124). Older individuals are better in jobs that require the use of emotional labor since they are intrinsically motivated and they are able to regulate their feelings effectively (Dahling, and Perez, 2010, p. 575). Offer good training to the workers. Managers and employers should train their service workers on how to employ genuine deep acting while at the same time they reduce their surface acting. They also require training on how to display organizationally desired emotions and at the same time empower them in coping with challenging situations (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p. 124). Well laid out organizational culture: a supportive environment through which employees can interact with their supervisors and co-workers can help them cope with the difficulties encountered during customer service work. This will make them display a more welcoming behavior toward their customers (Lee, and Ok 2014: 179). The experience at Payneham Chinese Restaurant was positive. However, it is suggested because the pressure and stress experienced by waiters and waitresses is high, negative impacts could be experienced through sustained levels in using surface and deep acting (Lee, and Ok 2014: 179). Managers and supervisors should consider the likelihood of employees experiencing stress which comes as a result of physical and emotional exhaustion and can lead to poor service deliverly. It is recommendable that workers be allowed considerable time to rest away from the working environment for them to balance their work and life as well recover from the consequences of emotional labor (Lee, and Ok 2014: 180). Additionally, it is recommended that they are encouraged to refrain from too much surface acting in the workplace so as they don’t loose their sense of identity (Kogovsek and Kogovsek, 2015, p. 124). Conclusion Firms in the hospitality industry make use of emotional labor where employees try to show feelings that will make customers satisfied with the services. Different scholars have examined the concept of emotional labor and it has been found to be beneficial to numerous hospitality firms all over the world. It has been found that employees can use surface acting as well as deep acting where the employees try to show their customers the best out of the organization. Payneham Chinese Restaurant is a hospitality organization in Adelaide, South Australia where workers try to make their customers satisfied using emotional labor. The waiters and waitresses in the café put on emotions that customers will find welcoming. Employing emotional labor can have negative consequences on the employees as they try to balance the actual feelings and the displayed ones. Restaurants should give their service staff proper training and employ mature ones as well as giving them ample time outside the workplace to prevent the negative impacts. References Choi, Y., & Kim, K. 2015, A Literature Review of Emotional Labor and Emotional Labor Strategies, Universal Journal of Management, Vol. 3, No.7, p. 294-301. Dahling J. J. and Perez L. A. 2010, Older worker, different actor? Linking age and emotional labor strategies, Personality and Individual Differences. Vol.48, pp.574-578. Kogovsek, M. and Kogovsek, M. 2015, Emotional Labor In Hospitality Industry: Literature Review, Quaestus multidisciplinary research journal, pp.115 – 130. Lee, J. J., and Ok, C. 2014, “Understanding hotel employees’ service sabotage: Emotional labor perspective based on conservation of resources theory.” International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 36, pp. 176-187. Zapf, D. 2002, Emotion work and psychological well-being a review of the literature and some conceptual considerations, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 12, p. 237-268. Appendices Read More